US1325524A

US1325524A - mccloud

Info

Publication number: US1325524A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1919-12-23
Anticipated expiration: 1936-12-23

Description

E. H. McCLOUD.

AUTOMATIC FIRE SHUTTER.

APPLICATION HLED OCT. 21. m7.

1,325,524. Patented Dec. 23,1919. Q a SHEEVTSSHEET 2. N R

' I avwenw EdwardfLMTlvud Q 6 E. H. McCLOUD. AUTOMATIC FIRE SHUTTER. APPLICATION HLED OCT- 27, 19!].

Patented Dec. 23,1919.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3 amen 6oz fldwarcliiM loud @54 4? A4 Gum/W UNITED STATES OFFICE.

EDWARD H. MCCLOUD, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE KINNEAR MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO,

A conronn'rron or 01110.

AUTOMATIC FIRE-SHUTTER.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Dec, 23, 1919.

Applicationfiled October 27, 1917. Serial No. 198,770.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, EDWARD H. MoCLoUD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Automatic Fire- Shutters, of which the following. is a specification.

This invention relates generally to automatic fire shutters and more particularly to flexible rolling fire shutters and especially such as have a tension member for counterbalancing the shutter and are manually operative in normal circumstances and are thermally controlled for release to'permit automatic closing in the event of nearb fire.

Heretofore in automatic fire sh tters where a counterbalancing spring fo the shutter was partially released to permit the automatic closing of the shutter the release was practically instantaneous so that the remaining tension acted to interfere with.

the development of that early momentum which is important in carrying the shutter promptly to closing position againstthe remaining tension of the spring. Further if the portion of tension thus released was suflicient to permit early momentum the acceleration over the weak remaining tension was.

great enough to endanger the integrity of the shutter.

The principal object of the present invention therefore is to provide an improved construction whereby upon the release of the thermally controlled means no tension of the counterbalancing spring is exerted on the. shutter to impede it in its initial closing movement from the normal open position of the shutter. A further object is the provision in connection with such means of means whereby the extent of such unimpeded initial movement may be varied. Other objects can be gathered from the details disclosed herein.

The invention is embodied in the example herein shown and described, the features of novelty being pointed out in the appended claim I In the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the shutter roller and a portion only of a shutter thereon,

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a modification.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the right handnates the barrel or shutter winding memher which receives the shutter or curtain 11 to wind thereon. The barrel contains inits left hand end a head or plug 12 with a shaft extension 12 supported on roller bearings 13 in the bracket 10. The head or plug 12 and its extension 12 are perforated axially to receive a'shaft 14. Said shaft 14' can be adJusted and fixed in adjusted relation to the head 12 and its extension by .meansof a wheel 15 pinned to the shaft and awheel l6 keyed to the extension 12", the latter hav-' ing a threaded hole to receive a pin 17 entering one of several radial sockets 15 in the rim of the wheel 15. The wheel 16 has around its axis in its face adjacent the bracket a volute groove 16 and said groove carries a loose pin 18, one end of which proects -1nto a radial slot 19 in a disk 20 adjustably secured on the outer face of the bracket. The construction and function of said devices is such as to limit the rotation of the shutter-receiving member and is substantially such as set forth the United States patentto McCloud and Brunst, No. 1,204,738, dated Nov. 14, 1916..

The right hand end of the barrel contains a head 40 through whichextends a shaft 21, said shaft having a bearing in the end bracket 10. Keyed onthe' outer end of the shaft 21, beyond the bracket, is a dished wheel 22 having ratchet teeth- 22 on its flange or rim and a ,number of radial holes and

sockets

22 and 22, one pair of which is to receive a removable pin 23. The wheel 22 and the shaft 21 are normally latched from movement by means of a pawl 24 pivoted on a lever 25 fulcrumed at 26 on the outer face of the end bracket. The

pawl 24 is held in proper position to engage a tooth and permit a turning in one direction of the wheel 22 by means of a coil spring 27 connecting its lower end and the lever 25 carrying the pawl. The lever 25 is'actuatable to place or remove the pawl by means of a heavy lever 28, there being a pin and slot connection between the two levers as clearly illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. The lever 28 is supported in position to hold up the lever with its pawl in engagement with the ratchet by means of a weight arm 29 held with a wire or chain 29 containing a fusible link 30, as usual in this art, so that upon the occurrence of fire in the vicinity of the shutter the several levers and pawls are released. The shaft 21 has pinned to its inner end a sleeve 31 to which is connected a coil spring 32, the other end of said spring being connected with a sleeve 33 secured to the barrel or drum but turning on the shaft 14. The end of the shaft 14 extends into the opening of the collar 31 on the shaft 21 and the two shafts aline axially but are rotatable independently of each other. Pinned to shaft 14 is a disklike collar 34 and loose on said shaft between said collar 34 and the collar 31 are a number of disk-like collars 35 having lateral projections or lugs adapted to engage one another and corresponding lugs on the

collars

31 and 34 so that the shaft 14 may be turned several times before the train of lugs are contacting to prevent further relative rotation of them. The number of disk-like collars 35 to be interposed between the

collars

31 and 34 will depend upon the extent to which the shutter is to be manually unrolled. This last described construction is set forth in Letters Patent of the United States dated April 25, 1916, No. 1,204,802, to Edward H. McCloud. As shown in the modification Fig. 2 the shaft 21 has pinned to it a collar 36 between which, and a collar 37 secured to the barrel, isa coil spring 38. This spring 38 is supplementary or auxiliary to the spring 32, and can be omitted provided the coils of the spring 32 be made ample to meet the requirements.

The outer face of the bracket 10 is provided with a lug 39 against which the pin 2-3 abuts to limit the rotation of the barrel and spring when the pawl 24 is released as hereinafter explained.

After the ratchet wheel 22 and

shafts

21 and 14 have been first set by latching the wheel 22 the wheel 16 is turned until the pin 18 is at the outer terminus of the groove 16 with the shutter wound up. The shaft 14 is then turned independently of the wheel 16 in the winding up direction until the train of lugs on the collar31, 34 and 35 are in contact merely and the wheel 15 locked to the wheel 16 by the pin 17. After this the wheel 22 and the shaft 21' are turned until the spring 32 or the

springs

32 and 38 if the construction be such as shown in Fig. 2 are under sufiicient tension to balance the weight of the shutter and hold it wound up or hold it in the position to Which it may be drawn down. After this the pin 23 is inserted in the hole and socket 22"22 to permit, upon the release of the wheel 22, of such a rotation of the spring with the barrel as will allow ample initial unrolling of the shutter by gravity alone to afford the proper momentum to overcome the remaining tension of the spring to carry it promptly to closing position without endangering violence. In any given construction the ratio of turns of the spring to shutter-winding turns of the drum is practically fixed. Upon the release of the shaft 21, in case of fire the shutter u'nrolls by gravity unrestrained by the spring and a difference in the ratio of spring turns or tension to drum rotation is created to the extent determined by the are through which the pin be sufiicient (allowing for incidental fric tion of the parts) the shutter will proceed to close by gravity against the restraining effe'ct of the remaining tension of the spring. If the shutter be fully and normally wound up at the moment of the release of the shaft 21 the train of lugs on the

collars

31, 34 and remain in. contact the spring rotating with the barrel until the lugs separate. If the shutter be released from a partially drawn down state, said lugs being more or less separated, a portion of the tension of the spring or springs is released substantially proportionally to the are through which the pin 23 moves and the shutter likewise; proceeds to close by gravity because of this release. In either case the ratio of resisting tension to the unrolling portion of the shutter is substantially uniform or such as to prevent an undue acceleration of the speed of the closing shutter.

It will be noted that when the wheel 22 is latched by the pawl 24 as herein described 23 after which the barrel continues to rotate under the action of the weight and momentum of the unrolling shutter, but because the lugs then begin to separate the spring begins to exert increasingly its restraining effect upon the descending shutter.

' The forms of the parts shown and described can be varied without departing from the gist of the invention as claimed.

What I claim is:

..1. In-an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter and a holding means therefor movable with reference to the winding member, means independent of the shutter for limiting the winding action of the winding member with reference to said holding means, thermally controlled means for'latch-- ing said holding means, and means for limiting the movement'of said holding means upon the release of the latching means to partially reduce thetension of the tension member.

2. In an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member, a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter and a holding means therefor movable with reference to the winding mem-,

ber, means independent of the shutter for limiting the winding action of the winding member with reference to said holding means, means whereby said limiting means may be adjusted and fixed in adjusted position, thermally controlled means for latching said holding means, and means for limiting the movement of said holding means upon the release of the latching means.

3. In an automatic fire shutter, the c01n-.

bination of a shutter winding member, a s ring counterbalancing member therefor, t ermally controlled means for holding said spring member normally in shutter counterbalancing condition, and means whereby said spring is caused to rotate inert with respect to the shutter winding member when the thermally controlled means is released, and means independent of the shutter for limiting the extent of such inert rotation of the spring.

4. In an automatic shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member, a shaft movable with reference thereto, a counterbalancing spring connecting said shaft and the shutter winding member, thermally controlled means for holding said shaft, means I for limiting the movement of said shaft, and means for limiting the winding movement of the shutter winding means.

5. In anautomatic shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member, a shaft movable with reference thereto, a counterbalancing spring connecting said shaft and the shutter winding member, thermally controlled means .for holding said shaft, means for releasing and limiting the movement of said shaft to partially reduce the tensionof second shaft for adjusting the tension of the counterbalancing spring independently of the shutter winding member and means for fixing said last named shaft with respect.

to the shutter winding member.-

7. In an automatic shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member, a shaft movable. with reference thereto, a counterbalancing spring connecting said shaft and the shutter=winding member, thermally controlled means for holding said shaft, means for releasing and limiting the movement of said shaft when released and thereby partially reducing the tension of said spring, a second shaft for adjusting the tension of the counterbalancing spring independently of the shutter winding member, means for fixing said last named shaft with respect to the shutter winding member and means for lime iting the winding movement of the first mentioned shaft with refernce to the second named shaft. I

I 8; In an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member, a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter, means for holding said counterbalanci'ng means in a state of tens on, said holding means movable withv reference to.

the winding member, means for limiting the movement of said holding means to cause a partial reduction of the tension of the tension member, and thermally controlled means for latching said limiting means.

9. In-an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member, a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter, means for holding said counterbalancing means in a state of tension, said holding means movable with reference to the winding, member, means for limiting the movement of said holding means to cause a partial reduction'of the tension of the tension member, thermally controlled means for latching said llmlting means, and means to cause the counterbalancing member and winding member to rotate together during the initial unwinding movement of the winding member.

EDWARD H. McCLOUD.